During the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan, as the first emperor of the Sun Wu regime, proclaimed himself emperor in 229, moved the capital to Jianye, implemented a series of political and economic measures, promoted the prosperity and development of the economy in the south of the Yangtze River, and opened a new chapter in the history of trade between Jianye and the east coast of Liaodong.
In his later years, due to the issue of the heir to the throne, Sun Quan very arbitrarily abolished the crown prince and appointed his youngest son as the successor to power, which led to the situation of the Sun Wu Dynasty in the transfer of power.
Sun Quan did not fully consider the complex environment inside and outside the dynasty, and directly set up a young son, which provided an opportunity for the powerful ministers to disrupt the government in the future, which led to the autocratic situation of the ministers of Tuogu, which caused political turmoil in the dynasty, and finally caused the destruction of the five important ministers of Tuogu.
The ending of Sun Quan's three sons vying for the throne
1. The dispute between the princes
In his later years, Sun Quan caused the failure of the road to orphanage because of his arbitrariness, and the years-long disputes between the government and the opposition brought great turmoil to the dynasty.
In 241 years of the Sun-Wu Dynasty, the crown prince Sun Deng died, and Sun Quan was extremely sad about the death of the crown prince Sun Deng and could not extricate himself for a long time.
According to the eldest system, the first three sons and grandsons were canonized as the crown prince in the first month of 242, and the fourth son and grandson were appointed as the king of Lu in August of that year.
After Sun He and Sun Ba were canonized, due to Sun Quan's love for their children, the two were equal in the palace, laying the groundwork for the future struggle between the two.
After Sun Quan suggested that the crown prince and King Lu should be separated from each other, they adopted a separation that conformed to the etiquette system, and the contradiction between the two arose.
Due to Sun Quan's daily favor, King Lu believed that it was the crown prince and his staff who caused his status to decline, and wanted to replace him all the time.
Sun Quan heard the rumors of discord between the two, and asked the two to think seriously behind closed doors.
Because of the disagreement between the two, some people want to take advantage of the conflict between the two to get personal development opportunities.
The officials of the dynasty looked for the two as backers, and the ministers tried their best to win the first credit in front of the heir to the imperial power, making the originally bad contradictions between the two increasingly serious.
Because of the issue of the heir to the throne, the Sun-Wu Dynasty formed a momentum of party struggle, which expanded even further, from the internal strife to the temples of the dynasty, and even to the army and local officials, and the ministers became the behind-the-scenes forces to manipulate the heir to the throne, and the dynasty became a competition field for various interest groups.
The occurrence of this kind of internal friction will inevitably affect the normal political operation of the entire dynasty, involving the inevitable involvement of the entire high-level of the dynasty, and important officials will be forced to be affected and affected.
In order to avoid the intensification of the struggle and the turmoil of the dynasty, Sun Quan disposed of some radical ministers and promoted some moderate ministers, and the contradictions of the party struggle cooled down a lot.
Sun Quan, under the instigation of his eldest daughter Sun Luban, believed that the party disputes and contradictions between the two had affected the normal program of the dynasty and brought a rift to the politics of the dynasty.
Although Sun Quan had good thoughts about the crown prince Sun Monk, he thought that the prince's wings were too plump and harmful to the dynasty, so Sun Quan still advocated to abolish the crown prince, gave King Lu to death, and ended the dispute between the two palaces.
In 250, Sun Quan abandoned the inheritance system of the eldest son and appointed his favorite young son Sun Liang as the crown prince.
2. The road to orphanage
The older generation of pragmatic ministers passed away one after another, and the second generation of ministers lost their pragmatic attitude, relying on their youthful enthusiasm to pursue power and status.
Sun Quan's clan relative Sun Jun saw the situation in Sun Quan's battle for the crown prince, united with Zhuge Ke, and became a strong supporter of Zhuge Ke's camp.
Sun Quan died in 252, and the ministers Sun Jun, Zhuge Ke, Teng Yin, Lü Ju and Sun Hong received Sun Quan's edict to assist the ten-year-old Sun Liang to ascend the throne.
Even if the new emperor ascends the throne, the ministers' past party disputes and contradictions will not be reconciled and resolved.
Soon after Sun Quan's death, out of internal strife, Zhuge Ke first eradicated Sun Hong, and began to dictate power in the Sun Wu Dynasty.
Sun Jun took advantage of Zhuge Ke's defeat in the conquest of Cao Wei, and when the government and the opposition complained about Zhuge Ke, he took the opportunity to get rid of Zhuge Ke and began the era of Sun Jun's dictatorship.
In 256, on the way to conquer Cao Wei, Sun Jun suddenly fell ill and died at night.
The autocratic and chaotic government of Zhuge Ke and Sun Jun caused the Sun Wu Dynasty to experience several years of political turmoil and damaged the foundation of the dynasty.
Sun Jun entrusted the affairs to his cousin Sun Qi, who held the supreme power of the Sun-Wu Dynasty, and Sun Qi killed Teng Yin and Lü Ju, who took the lead in opposing his monopoly of power in the dynasty.
Sun Quantuogu's five important ministers all died, and the political turmoil of the dynasty continued.
In 258, the contradiction between Sun Qi and Sun Liang, the emperor of Sun Wu, who had become pro-government, became increasingly public, and after Sun Liang learned that Sun Liang wanted to kill him, he took the lead in attacking the palace and deposing the throne of Sun Liang, who had reigned for six years.
Sun Qi welcomed Sun Xiu to take over the throne, and after Sun Xiu ascended the throne, Sun Qi became more and more arrogant, and Sun Qi's power even surpassed that of Sun Xiu, the emperor of the Sun Wu Dynasty.
Sun Xiu's purge of the ministers who threatened the throne was imperative, and Sun Qi, who was in power for a while, reached a turning point in his life, and what should come will always come, Sun Xiu, the emperor of Sun Wu, and Zhang Bu designed to murder Sun Qi.
The dictatorship of the ministers of the dynasty ended, and the road of the transfer of power to Sun Quan ended in failure.
The reason for the failure of Sun Quantuogu
In his later years, Sun Quan was very superstitious about omens, admired and believed in ghosts and gods, and made many mistakes, killing and exiling many innocent ministers.
1. Failure to obliterate the degree
Sun Quan favored the crown prince Sun He and Sun Ba, the king of Lu, and divided the two into rituals without beginning, which eventually led to a change in the second palace and shook the foundation of the dynasty.
Sun Quan had an ambiguity on the issue of the crown prince, and when the ministers saw this scene, they would choose to take sides, and they all wanted to take the lead in the issue of establishing the crown prince and become the hero of the heir to the throne.
In the face of power and interests, ministers must fight to the death, otherwise they will never give up.
Zhuge Ke and Xuan Yin supported the crown prince Sun He, and Lu Ju and Sun Hong supported Lu Wang Sun Ba, this situation was destined to continue party strife within the Sun Wu Dynasty.
The eight-year struggle between the two has made the dynastic party struggle increasingly fierce, and the second generation of ministers are young and enthusiastic, lack practical and rational, and pursue fame and fortune, resulting in a further escalation of contradictions.
For the position of the crown prince, the ministers fought for several years, and it completely turned into a personal grudge.
The intensifying internal strife turned into an open confrontation, causing the contradictions of the party to intensify in the court.
This internal friction shook the political foundation of the Sun-Wu dynasty and was tantamount to a great disaster, affecting the implementation of every subsequent policy and decision of the dynasty.
The interest groups that accompany this kind of party struggle, even in the end, Sun Quan is powerless.
For the complex situation inside and outside the Sun-Wu Dynasty, the smooth operation of the political machine is the most fundamental, and the succession to the throne is implemented in accordance with the system, which can effectively solve the problem of internal friction from the legal theory, so that the ministers can act step by step, and will not go beyond the thunder pool in a certain environment, so as to form a joint force of dynastic power, which is conducive to the prosperity and development of the dynasty.
However, Sun Quan's deposition of the crown prince broke the smooth operation of this system, and provided an opportunity for the ministers to disrupt the government, and once the system of succession to the throne was destroyed, the entire administrative apparatus would lose its coherence, leading to a series of violent conflicts, thus disintegrating the unity within the dynasty.
Compared with the complex environment inside and outside the Sun-Wu Dynasty, although the system of succession to the eldest is not a perfect system, it can give the crown prince the opportunity to cultivate cronies and establish authority. The stability of the regime is far greater than the personal ability of the heirs of the dynasty, and the ability advantage of the young sons of the dynasty is not enough to compensate for the losses caused by various insecurity factors.
The ministers fought fiercely for their own interests, resulting in a path to orphanage, which ended in failure.
2. The dictatorship of the ministers is chaotic
Sun Quan's canonization of his youngest son as the crown prince provided a historical platform for the ministers to rebel in the government, and the minister's power swelled to the point of autocratic and disorderly government, although it did not reach the level of usurping power and self-reliance, but it caused great turmoil to the dynasty.
Due to the unstable foundation of the youngest son, he relied on the power of the ministers to maintain the normal operation of the dynasty.
In the complex environment inside and outside the Sun Wu Dynasty, the change of the crown prince was crucial to the influence of the dynasty, and the party strife mixed with it became a destabilizing factor that threatened the dynasty.
As the victor of the crown prince's accession to the throne, revenge against the loser was inevitable, and this purge inevitably affected the coherence of the dynastic state's operating apparatus.
After the youngest son ascended the throne and won the first credit, Zhuge Ke, after grasping the supreme power of the dynasty, began to dictate and mess with the government, which will inevitably touch the interests of Sun Jun and other powerful ministers.
Sun Jun took the opportunity to get rid of Zhuge Ke, which affected the Zhuge Ke clan, and every fierce political struggle in the dynasty was followed by a powerful political purge campaign, and each political purge brought impact and turmoil on the dynasty.
Sun Jun began to dictate and disrupt the dynasty, but unexpectedly fell seriously ill on the way to conquer Cao Wei, and when he was dying, he entrusted the affairs to his cousin Sun Qi.
Sun Qi immediately gained power, took the opportunity to get rid of the important ministers Teng Yin and Lü Ju, abolished the emperor Sun Liang, who had been in power, and appointed Sun Xiu as the emperor of the Sun Wu Dynasty.
After Sun Xiu ascended the throne, Sun Xiu's power threatened the emperor's position, and it was imperative for Sun Xiu to carry out internal purging and cutting.
In the end, Sun Qi's fate can be imagined.
The complex situation inside and outside the Sun Wu Dynasty, in order to avoid the chaos of the ministers, the need for a perfect system of succession to the throne to ensure the normal operation of the dynasty, Sun Quan did not follow the constraints of the system, and it was inevitable that the road to orphanage would end in failure.
summary
The succession system of dynasties was designed to ensure the stability and coherence of the dynasty, and the coherence of the administrative apparatus of the dynasty was far greater than the meritocracy of the emperor, which was also determined by the historical limitations of the dynasties.
The complex environment inside and outside the Sun-Wu Dynasty required a sound system of imperial succession as a solid political foundation to ensure the continuity of the dynasty's operation.
Sun Quan's doting on his children caused a political struggle in the second house. Sun Quan did not properly deal with the problem of the battle between the two palaces, and took measures arbitrarily, which ended in a cruel ending, and the ministers' original situation of climbing the dragon and the phoenix changed with the ending, which was bound to cause relatively large political turmoil.
Sun Quan did not fully consider the complex environment inside and outside the dynasty, and directly set up a young son, the stability and operational coherence of the dynasty was greatly challenged, providing a platform for the ministers to exert their power, resulting in the failure of the road to the transfer of power.